The ministry for transport of the Sierra Oculta government has never been one for squandering money but a major investment has been made for the development of the Jones River crossing on the FCPyF today. An offcut of MDF and another of plywood have been purchased for the princely sum of one pound from B&Q.

The sheet of MDF (A) will form the backscene while the smaller piece of plywood (B) will be used to create the front edge profile of the baseboard. Other bits of scrap have been used in this picture to show the profile of the tunnels hiding the San Pedro branch (C) and the exit to Rio Paleta (D).

Behind the scenes the track bed for the San Pedro staging spur has been set in place and weighted while the glue sets. It will be left overnight before the track is laid.

You may be wondering why I have included the branch. It allows short railcar and push-pull trains to terminate half way along the line, having passed Frog Rock and Resurreccion but stopping short of Rio Paleta as if they have branched off on the San Pedro line.

This creates the illusion of there actually being some substance to the supposed route map. The branch also increases the capacity of the layout so that extra trains can be run.

In theory San Pedro is a major mining town which is why it retained its rail connection when the Ferrocarril Internacional line was abandoned. The mineral trains run in the very early hours of the morning and are therefore seldom photographed but the town has a daytime passenger service calling at Resurrecion and stopping on request at Frog Rock before continuing south to Quarto del Pulgada. Passengers wishing to travel north to San Fernandez may change at Resurreccion but most prefer to ride the local to QdP before picking up the northbound train as there’s not much to do in Resurreccion since the Posada Estrella moved its business to Rio Paleta!